1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicle-mounted video communication system for transmitting the video data picked up by image pickup devices mounted on a vehicle to video processing devices via communication lines (transmission lines) and to a vehicle-mounted image pickup system capable of recording the video pictures picked up by the image pickup devices.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, video pictures of the periphery of a vehicle are picked up using a plurality of image pickup devices mounted on the vehicle and the picked up video pictures are displayed on a display device, such as a head-up display and a car navigation display, so as to prevent traffic accidents.
Since, by picking up an image of a blind area in the view from the driver's seat, the area incapable of being directly viewed by the driver can be displayed on a display, the driver can take necessary actions to prevent accidents. Furthermore, a system has also been developed in which pedestrians, other vehicles, etc. around the vehicle are detected by performing various processing on the basis of the video pictures picked up using the image pickup devices mounted on the vehicle and a warning is issued to the driver. Hence, the number of such image pickup devices mounted on each vehicle tends to increase. Moreover, in recent years, image pickup devices are also mounted inside the vehicle to pick up video pictures of the driver, and the video pictures are subjected to various processing using the image pickup devices, such as the detection of the line of sight of the driver.
FIG. 27 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional vehicle-mounted video communication system. The vehicle-mounted video communication system is equipped with a plurality of image pickup devices, that is, first to third image pickup devices 21, 22 and 23, mounted on a vehicle. First to third video processing devices 31, 32 and 33 are connected one-to-one to the first to third image pickup devices 21, 22 and 23, respectively, via cables. The first to third video processing devices 31, 32 and 33 process video data, thereby detecting the traveling position of the vehicle, detecting pedestrians and issuing warnings, for example.
Furthermore, in recent years, attention is paid to a drive recorder for recording the video pictures picked up by image pickup devices at the time of occurrence of an accident, such as a vehicle collision. The drive recorder is configured so as to record the video pictures picked up during a predetermined period of approximately several seconds to several ten seconds before and after the time of occurrence of the collision. Hence, the drive recorder is advantageous in that, in the case that an accident occurred, the cause of the accident can be investigated more accurately.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-211415 has proposed a vehicle-mounted image recording device in which video information around a vehicle is obtained and encoded as video-encoded stream information, the traveling state information of the vehicle is obtained, and the video-encoded stream information and the traveling state information are multiplexed, whereby a multiplexed stream is generated and recorded. With this vehicle-mounted image recording device, the multiplexed stream recorded can be used as evidence in the case of occurrence of an accident. Furthermore, video picture recorded regardless of the occurrence of an accident can be viewed easily by the user.